Intellectual opposition of Bülent Ecevit: The journal arayış

Arayış was a periodical journal which was published with the effort of Bülent Ecevit, under the 12th September rule, when all political activities were banned. The first issue of the weekly journal was published on the 21st of February, 1981 and 54 issues were released in total. Ecevit revealed his opinions regarding political, economic and social struggles of Turkey in the leading articles. Ecevit's articles were banned by the 15th issue and the journal was completely closed down by the 12th September rule on the 2nd of March, 1982. Arayış could be regarded as an opposition focus against the 12th September rule, composed of a lot of academics who adopted social democrat view. This study aims to clarify the radical changes that Turkey went through in the period that started with 12th September in consideration of Arayış journal. In this sense, arguments regarding the implementation of 24th January Decisions which provided for a liberal economic order and the new constitution, as well as oppression on Turkish media, developments in education, culture and art, and cases against the political parties.